It's Just About Everywhere

When I started out as a radial arm saw operator 30 years ago, I recall being given a hammer to use to nail the “stops” to my wood bench when I was cutting several pieces of the same length. It wasn’t anything special, just your typical hardware store hammer, and it was all I needed. However, it didn’t take too long to notice that all the guys who worked the tables, the guys who built trusses for a living, used another kind of hammer. Thus began my fascination with the Estwing.

A Family Business

Estwing was founded in 1923 by Ernest Estwing, a Swedish immigrant. He patented the one-piece design that was much safer than other hammers on the market. The business started slowly because Estwing’s hammers were twice as expensive ($2) as other hammers. An ad placed in Carpenter Magazine in 1925 received an encouraging response, prompting Estwing to begin his first factory. Estwing is still largely a family business based in Rockford, Illinois.

The Preferred Hammer of the Truss Builder

Specifically, I’m referring to a product that the Estwing company calls a Framing Hammer, which is a subset of their Nailing Hammer product line. I’ve been looking through the photos I have of guys building trusses and I haven’t found any (yet) that don’t show the builder wielding an Estwing.

But Which One?

For the truss builder ready to move up to the truss builder’s hammer of choice, the problem is, “Which one?” The Nailing Hammer comes in 20, 22, 24, 28, and 30 oz. weights. It also comes in 13.5” and 16” lengths, and “milled” (waffle) or smooth face. Although the 13.5” works fine, I think more “pro” truss builders use the 16”, and no doubt, if you can handle it, the 16” can generate more “head speed.” Weight is subjective, like the weight of the bat you use for hitting a baseball. It’s whatever feels right for you. And I would always choose the waffle face – it just seems to me that it “grabs” the plate better when I am striking it, although admittedly I have no evidence to back that up!

What’s the appeal?

Why would one model outsell all the others for building trusses? Almost certainly it is the lightweight, one-piece design, allowing for higher head speed, and the ‘shock and vibration-reducing’ grip. This characteristic “blue grip” has been around a long time, and was improved significantly in 2001.

Until I visited the web site I was unaware of the Hammertooth™ model, which looks like an excellent tool to use if you are building wall panels.

Safety

The Estwing web site emphasizes the importance of eye protection, citing OSHA regulation 29 CFR 1910.133 that requires the use of eye protection not only for workers using striking tools, but for workers in the immediate working area. There is a warning to never strike two heads together, and the site encourages discarding hammers with damaged heads, claws, or handles.

Labor Day

When I worked out in the shop at Ridgway Roof Truss in Gainesville, Florida, I had a friend name Ken who drove a truck. Ken would tell me stories about big loads he had taken around curves (too slowly - he was in traffic) where two of his wheels left the ground for a moment. It made Ken, the sensitive sort, a nervous wreck. I also remember coming by Ken’s house on a Saturday, and being surprised to find that he was trying his hand a painting. Now, Ken looked the part of a truss plant truck driver (in my mind,) portly, big mustache, plain talking – and there we was painting with watercolors. Ken helped me to realize that you really never know what someone’s insides are like by looking at their outsides. He also taught me that truck drivers have one of the toughest, most nerve-wracking jobs in the industry.

I remember the crew we had at Ridgway, even today, almost thirty years later. What a bunch of characters! That group taught me (among other thing) that guys in their twenties almost always have a lot of drama in their lives. It does not mean that they aren’t good workers, or good people, but they are going to have rough times sometimes and probably make mistakes. Guys in their thirties should be transitioning out of that… much less drama, and if you still have a high degree of drama going on when you’re 40, well, there it’s probably not your age that’s the cause, it’s you.

In a small shop everybody knows what kind of work everybody else does. In our crew, almost everyone did excellent work. The biggest difference was simply that some people were innovators – idea men, and many were not. A nice, stable, hardworking crew was a pleasure to work with. You had a team spirit thing going on, even with no one doing the “rah! rah!” thing. At break and at lunch on those hot Florida days, we’d stand around together sweating, but we’d be sweating together. In that crew you also knew that if you had an ‘off day’ that the other guys would overlook it (generally) because they knew that most days you did a great job.

We had some fun out in the shop. Why are there more nicknames in a shop then in an office? I think it’s because less was expected of us and therefore we felt more comfortable doing goofy things – but those things helped our morale. A happy workplace is one where good moods are in evidence, and a fair number of jokes are played on the unsuspecting.

In that truss shop and during my grocery store gig, I learned that the people who make up the ‘labor,’ are just the same as the people in the office – they are either just at a different time in their lives or they’ve had different circumstances to deal with. Their just as smart, just as capable, and have just as many surprises up their sleeve as anyone else. They make our places of businesses work, and by and large have a great sense of pride in what they do, and in turn do a great job.